The Bracket Handle lighting control board was removed from the Regent Cinema, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, in 1998, and theatre consultant Roger Fox convinced Walter Gerriets to add it to his collection. 
Roger Fox and Joe Aveline restored it to working order. 

Information from Roger Fox: 

This 18 way manual dimmer board is thought to be the oldest remaining example made by The Strand Electric and Engineering Company of London. 
 
It was supplied new to The Regent Cinema, Hanley, Stoke on Trent in February 1928.  The Regent was a 2500+ seat cinema with a large stage (12 metre wide proscenium and about 9 metres deep stage, with a flytower.  It staged live shows as well as, and as part of film performances.  In its later years The Beatles performed here. 
 
The lighting for this large stage was controlled by just 18 dimmers, each of about 2Kw capacity.  There were 3 colour footlights, and battens with 2 arc followspots.  From the 1960s onwards the cinema declined in popularity and the stalls were converted into two small cinemas.  It closed in the early 1990s, but was rescued and restored as a 1700 seat theatre with a larger stage and orchestra pit and new dressing rooms.
 
The lighting board would have been demolished, together with the stage in 1998.  However, I was one of the Theatre Consultants working on the restoration and I recognised its importance.  I convinced Walter Gerriets that it would be an interesting addition to his collection, and he agreed to pay for the removal.  Staff from Gerriets UK came to help with loading the board for its journey to Vogelsheim.
 
The board is of a very simple type and is typical of many made by Strand.  It is identified as a “Bracket Handle” board.  There were many small variations in these boards.  Most have three shafts to which their dimmers can be locked and moved together by the wheel at the shaft end.  Unlike Strand’s later larger boards, they have no slipping clutches on the dimmer locks and no mechanical links between the shafts.
 
The board was restored by myself and a colleague, Joe Aveline, during a week in Vogelsheim.  Apart from removing the neutral fuses from D.C. power on the rear panel, the board is complete and six dimmers are cabled to operate and have been demonstrated working.
 
This is one of a very few remaining in the world from what was once a common lighting board, and it is certainly the oldest Strand control in preservation.
 
Roger Fox  29/12/07 updated 31/8/23
 

Bracket Handle (photo courtesy Gerriets)
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Bracket Handle (photo courtesy Gerriets)
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Bracket Handle (photo courtesy Gerriets)
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Bracket Handle (photo courtesy Gerriets)
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Bracket Handle from Regent Cinema
From Roger Fox Collection
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Bracket Handle in situ at Regent Cinema
From Roger Fox Collection
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Bracket Handle in situ at Regent Cinema
From Roger Fox Collection
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